As a result of their high degree of surface activity, perfluoroalkyl group-containing compounds have many uses in industry as fluoro-surfactants. Typical applications include utilization as cross-linking agents and emulsifiers and flow improvers in film coating, paints or dishwashing and cleaning agents (cf. "Ullmann, Enzyklopadie der technischen Chemie, 4th edition 1982, Vol. 22, p. 500"). Surface treatments and electroplating represent further areas in which they are utilized, for example to resolve wetting problems, reduce losses by entrainment and evaporation, and improve the surface finish (cf. "J. N. Meu.beta.doerffer and H. Niederprum, Chemikerzeitung 104 (1980), pp. 45-52").
Examples of such fluoro-surfactants are salts of perfluorocarboxylic acids or sulphonic acids and polyether-substituted perfluoroalkyl compounds (cf. "H. G. Klein, J. N. Meu.beta.doerffer and H. Niederprum, Metalloberflache 29 (1975), pp. 559-567). "J. N. Meu.beta.doerffer and H. Niederprum, Chemikerzeitung 104 (1980, pp. 45-52" describes synthesis routes. The perfluorinated starting compounds for the aforementioned fluoro-surfactants are accessible industrially by three different synthesis routes:
a) electrochemical fluorination, PA1 b) telomerisation of perfluoro olefines, in particular tetrafluoroethylene, PA1 c) oligomerisation of tetrafluoroethylene.
Because the methods mentioned for preparing perfluorinated starting compounds use expensive technology, preparation of the perfluoro group-containing chemical compounds is very costly.